Vancouver citizens use Facebook to arrange riot cleanup

16 Jun 2011

More than 12,000 people have joined a Facebook group pledging to clean up Vancouver, British Columbia, after numerous hockey fans rioted after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals to the Boston Bruins.

Rioters burned cars, broke windows and looted stores in the aftermath of the hockey game. Police used batons and police dogs to try to push the crowd back.

According to CBC News, it was the “worst riot in decades” for the Canadian city.

The event made headlines around the globe and according to reports, many Vancouver citizens are turning to social networking to gather resources to clean the city up.

“Once the embarrassing rioting has ended in Vancouver let’s all show the world what Vancouver is really about by helping rebuild and clean up so it is better than it was before,” said a Facebook group called Post Riot Clean-up, which has already attracted more than 12,000 members at the time of writing.

The group is monitoring when it is safe to enter the vicinity again and is encouraging members to send invites to as many people as possible to the cleanup.

Along with using social media to clean things up, Vancouver citizens are also using the same sites to help bring looters to justice.

A Facebook group has been set up to let people post their photos of looters and tag them. A Tumblr blog with a similar motivation was also launched.

It seems officials are beginning to take note of these groups. According to Mashable, both the mayor of Vancouver and the police are calling on people to send in photos and videos of suspects.

The Vancouver Police Department posted on its Twitter page that it will soon be announcing details of how people can send in this evidence to the authorities.